Immunizations?

by crazy2try 27 Replies latest jw friends

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  I quit!

  According to former witness Bill Cetnar the reason the Watchtower changed their position concerning vaccination was that they were having trouble getting their missionaries out of the country because they refused to be vaccinated. The Watchtower has no problem changing it positions if it serves their interests.
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  JWoods

  I was a witness from 1962 until about 1979 and for some reason I never knew of anybody in my congregations who had any problem with vaccinations. As I remember, there were some questions about the blood issue with one or two specific types of vaccination, but the service department chose to not make an issue of the plasma connection.

  This thread is a surprise - looks like quite a few witnesses really have hung onto the pre-1952 vaccination superstition even until today.

  Makes me wonder if the blood transfusion doctrine would also live on as a kind of shadow belief even if the WTS removed it in the future?
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  blondie

  I think it depends a lot on your jw family history. My parent came in after that was over. But others I know had grandparents and parents that really hung onto this idea even into the 2000's. In many cases these were anointed grandparents and parents that were very strict and could not let go of old doctrine.
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  JWoods

  In many cases these were anointed grandparents and parents that were very strict and could not let go of old doctrine.

  Well, I have learned something from this thread. Never imagined that any modern witness could be holding onto this.

  And to think - there was not even a quasi-scriptural backing to this vaccination paranoia (other than vaguely calling it demonism, I guess). It was just somebodies religio-medical superstition, not unlike the weird radio machine and the aluminum pots and pans from earlier in the century.

  Crackpot status of this religion confirmed yet again.
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  dgp

  With my limited experience with witnesses, I personally know a fellow who was never vaccinated because it was frowned upon.

  As to this statement by Iquit!,

  According to former witness Bill Cetnar the reason the Watchtower changed their position concerning vaccination was that they were having trouble getting their missionaries out of the country because they refused to be vaccinated. The Watchtower has no problem changing it positions if it serves their interests.

  I think the men who made that decision were all bastards.
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  I quit!

  I also remember hearing that it was a fairly common practice for witness parents to burn their children's arms with battery acid so as to fake a vaccination scar so they could attend school.
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  cantleave

  I never heard of anyone clinging on to this idea. There were some who didn't want the MMR administered and so paid privately for individual vaccines, but that was no a doctrinal thing more to do with believing the conspiracists.
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  crazy2try

  Thanks for the comments. I am not even sure if this lady is a witness. She doesn't look (tatoos up and down her arms bad teeth) or act like one, but I was surprised by the reaction that she received. It was kind of "Oh those crazy witnesses don't give their kids vacines." I was floored and countered it. With "I was raised as a witness and all my brothers, my children and I had our vacines, that was her choice, not a witness doctrine." But now I can see that this lady may have been holding on to a old doctrin and I was only half right in my statement.
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  blondie

  If a jw doesn't accept a vaccination for themselves or their children, they are pretty much viewed as weird in this area by other jws. But there a quite a few non-jws that won't accept them either. The schools have a form that parents have to fill out to be excepted from the requirement to have their children vaccinated to attend school.
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  aSphereisnotaCircle

  My siblings and i were born between the late 1050's to the early 1970's, none of us were vacinated.

  While still a dub I had 2 children in the early 1980's and neither were vacinated.

  In my family, doctors were considered evil, and vacinations were counter productive to your health.

  However, i found that most JW's had no problem with vacinations, our family was not the norm.

  After I exited one of my children wanted to go on a foreing exchange program to a very far away country.

  She had to get all the shots she missed growing up, it took 2 or 3 doctors visits getting up to 6 shots at a time.

  yeah, I felt like a lousy parent.

  My last child is current on all her shots.